


Begin Again

by HolleringHawk65



Series: Harley's a Soloist AU [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, He's a stalker, The Joker snuck into their apartment, There's violence but not graphic?, implied depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 05:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4379909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolleringHawk65/pseuds/HolleringHawk65
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Harley gets hurt, she's a changed person.<br/>Bruce just wants to make her happy again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I changed my mind and made this a series because I was okay with how Everybody Talks ended but I also wanted to do this. They're okay with being standalones but they're technically a series :)

Bruce was sitting in his office, relaxed in his chair as he read over a report.

His secretary poked her head in. “There’s a call for you; they say it’s about Harley.”

He glanced at the clock and saw that it was 2:30. It was a little late for it to be Harley asking if he wants to have lunch with her--she would probably have texted him anyway.

“Hello, this is Bruce Wayne speaking.” The line came out with a practiced ease.

“Hi, this is Dr. Murphy. I normally wouldn’t bother a patient’s emergency contact, especially since I usually only do check-ups, but Harley was supposed to come in at 11. We tried reaching her but have been unsuccessful and it’s unusual for her.”

Now that it was pointed out, he hadn’t heard from her since this morning. Harley always texted her at some point, whether it was to complain about class (dance or school) or lunch or /something/.

“Thank you for letting me know. I’lll…. have her reschedule.”

He tried to hide the panic.

They hung up and right after he was calling Harley only to get her voicemail. He texted her that he was going home--he couldn’t think of anywhere else she might be right now.

He tried not to make a big deal of his leaving early. Tried to get home as fast as possible.

“Harley?” he called as he walked through the door. “Are you home?”

There was a groan, the sound of glass crunching. He was almost on his knees when he saw the scene in their living room. Harley was lying in a bed of shattered glass, eyes barely open.

He called 911 as he tried to talk to her. She tried to talk but she was on the verge of unconsciousness.

He reached out slowly to stroke her hair, the only place where he thought it was okay to touch her. Her eyes closed, a weak smile on her lips.

* * *

She was incredibly bruised with numerous cuts from the glass. Nothing was shattered but her body ached constantly and her right shoulder had been dislocated.

It had been her ex.

He was waiting for her when she came back from her dance class in the morning. He had wanted her to come back to him, to pick up where they had left off. She wouldn’t do it, couldn’t do it, she loved _Bruce_ , not this sick _freak_. He’d gotten angry, shoved her through the glass bannister of the balcony.

She didn’t go back to Bruce’s apartment, refused, saying that he had put up cameras to spy on them. She wouldn’t go back to Pamela’s apartment because she didn’t want to put her in danger.

No one in the GCPD would touch the case and while Bruce was a man of many trades but he couldn’t do anything… legally.

They moved into the Manor, where Harley seemed to stay in bed all day. She dropped ballet, where she thought that her ex could get to her too easily. She managed to keep up with her classes online and when she had to she would go on campus to take a test and the like.

She felt utterly broken.

It felt like Bruce couldn’t look at her anymore--like he wouldn’t. That the thought of her being with another person, somebody like _him_ , was so _revolting_ that he had given up on her.

They didn’t even sleep in the same room anymore.

* * *

Bruce had failed one of the few people in this world that he loved. He had failed to protect her from a terror that she had been too ashamed to tell him about and now she had shut herself off from practically everybody that cared about her.

He wanted to hold her, to help her get through this, but she shied away from contact now. Her responses to questions were short, her body always tense to go along with it.

He hated what this thing had done to her.

He had started going out at night. First, it was still as Bruce Wayne the playboy, going to clubs and getting a lay of the land. He had taken a step away from the elite and a step closer to the gangsters.

He wasn’t sure what his plan was. Wasn’t sure about what he could really _do_ , but he found himself in the gym more and doing the same thing every night.

The first time he had intervened, it was a woman who was being assaulted in an alley. It reminded him of Harley instantly. It made his heartache later, at the thought of his girlfriend, the only woman he loved like that, to be in a position even remotely similar to that.

He had gotten a jump on the assailants, throwing them off guard enough to knock them out and call the police.

He had left as quickly as he’d come.

It started becoming more and more frequent, even getting himself thrown onto newspapers as “The Dark Knight.” He was a completely different Prince of Gotham--one that, unlike Bruce, was made for the city.

He didn’t tell Harley that it was him. He had mentioned that the vigilant to her, even getting a smile out of her.

“It sounds like something from the stage,” she had told him. “Maybe he can make a difference.”

He was going to make a difference. He had vowed that as he waited for the ambulance with Harley.

He was going to take down the Joker for her.


End file.
